January 24, 2024 09:51 AM UTC

BREAKING: Mike Lynch Bows Out As House Minority Leader

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: The Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul:

House Republicans are scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. Thursday to pick a new minority leader.

Assistant House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, R-Colorado Springs, is the obvious choice, though others may pursue the job. Bottoms has said he doesn’t want to be minority leader…

The job of Colorado House Minority Leader has not historically been much of a springboard for higher office, especially picking up the ball after a PR disaster like this one. Rep. Rose Pugliese should think hard about what the consequences of having to answer for Scott Bottoms and his immoderate friends to her long-term political aspirations may be.

Much like Speaker of today’s U.S. House, it’s not a job we would relish.

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That’s the breaking news from the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives this morning, embattled Minority Leader Mike Lynch will resign from his post as Minority Leader, though not from his House seat, a week after Lynch’s 2022 arrest and conviction and DUI and carrying a gun while three sheets to the wind was made public by someone who doesn’t want Lynch to win the upcoming CD-4 congressional primary.

In his statement on the House floor this morning, a defiant Lynch blamed ex-Rep. and Colorado GOP chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams for his meddling in the process yesterday:

I want it to be clear that I’m not stepping down because I won a close vote of no confidence. I’m not stepping down because a failed state party chair decided to try and influence the actions of this House. I am stepping down because it’s the right thing to do becasue I have become a distraction for my caucus and that is getting in the way of the hard work we have to do in this building.

Lynch is referring to Williams showing up yesterday at the Capitol to openly push for Lynch’s ouster–FOX 31 reports:

Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams attended Tuesday’s caucus meeting. Supporters of Lynch have accused Williams of orchestrating the move to oust the minority leader.

Williams denied those allegations and said he was just at the Capitol by happenstance Tuesday but said the state party wants Lynch out of that position…

“We support these efforts to hold Representative Lynch accountable and he should do the decent thing and resign,” Williams continued. “It’s not just his DUI that’s the problem, it’s the fact that he tried to not have it go public, he engaged in a cover-up. The fact that it came out over a year later, I think is reprehensible.”

It’s unknown as of this writing which rival it was specifically who leaked Lynch’s case to the media, but that’s less important since the records were readily available and their exposure was always inevitable. In media appearances, Lynch maintained the pretense that he was somehow taking ownership of the scandal after it was exposed, even after the video of his arrest exposed Lynch trying to obtain special treatment due to his position. As recently as yesterday Lynch was calling the resurfacing of this case a “hit job” and boasting that even if a no-confidence voter succeeded it might not be binding to force him from the job of House Minority Leader.

Sometime between then and a few minutes ago, Lynch realized his arrogant bravado was no longer tenable.

And so, much like Republicans in Washington, D.C. although under different circumstances, Colorado House Republicans have defenestrated their own leadership under pressure from the hard right. Dave Williams is more than happy to add Mike Lynch to his growing collection of “RINO” scalps. The question now turns to who will succeed Lynch, and the name mentioned most out of dread or glee depending is Rep. Scott “There Is No” Bottoms of Colorado Springs. Bottoms as Minority Leader would mark the end of any pretense of bipartisan cooperation in the House this session, and most likely plunge the chamber into even deeper chaos than we saw last session. Lynch was never particularly interested in controlling the excesses of his nether-right members anyway.

Going forward, Lynch doesn’t have to. It’s the “Bottoms Up” minority now.